Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh on Saturday defended two party colleagues for having promised a “UP-like encounter model in Bengal” if the party came to power in the state, asserting there was “no alternative” to that “model” and denouncing Mamata Banerjee for asking police to act against such statements.

“There is no democracy in Bengal. People here have no rights. Therefore, to teach anti-social elements a lesson, there is no alternative to encounters in Bengal…. Sayantanda and Rajuda were absolutely correct,” Ghosh said in Chandernagore.

Ghosh, also the new Midnapore MP, was referring to Sayantan Basu and Raju Banerjee, who had on Monday said the Yogi Adityanath government’s “encounter model” would be replicated in Bengal.

Ghosh brought up a purported statement by chief minister in the Assembly on Wednesday in which she had criticised Basu and Banerjee.

“I saw reports that Mamata Banerjee expressed concern in the Assembly that the police were not listening to her and had not acted against our senior leaders. Her police, her administration, why are they not listening to her? Because they have realised what is going on,” Ghosh said.

Last year, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath had said the police had carried out 1,142 encounters in his first year in power in 2017, killing 34 people whose criminality was unproven.